The University of Sydney (USYD, Sydney or informally Sydney Uni) is an Australian publicresearch university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it was Australia's first university and is regarded as one of the world's leading universities. The university is colloquially known as one of Australia's sandstone universities. Its campus is ranked in the top 10 of the world's most beautiful universities by the British Daily Telegraph and The Huffington Post, spreading across the inner-city suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington.[2][3] The university comprises 9 faculties and university schools, through which it offers bachelor, master and doctoral degrees. In 2014 it had 33,505 undergraduate and 19,284 graduate students.[1]

A public university is a university that is publicly owned or receives significant public funds through a national or subnational government, as opposed to a private university. Whether a national university is considered public varies from one country to another, largely depending on the specific education landscape.

A research university is a university that is committed to research as a central part of its mission. Such universities have a strong focus on research and often have well known names. Undergraduate courses at research universities are often academic rather than vocational and do not prepare students for particular careers, but many employers value degrees from research universities because they teach fundamental life skills such as critical thinking. Globally, research universities are predominantly public universities, with notable exceptions being the United States and Japan.

Sydney is the state capital of New South Wales and the most populous city in Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Port Jackson and extends about 70 km (43.5 mi) on its periphery towards the Blue Mountains to the west, Hawkesbury to the north, the Royal National Park to the south and Macarthur to the south-west. Sydney is made up of 658 suburbs, 40 local government areas and 15 contiguous regions. Residents of the city are known as "Sydneysiders". As of June 2017, Sydney's estimated metropolitan population was 5,131,326, and is home to approximately 65% of the state's population.

In 2018-19, the QS World University Rankings ranked Sydney as the world's 25th most reputable university, and its graduates as the 4th most employable in the world and 1st in Australia.[4][5]

QS World University Rankings is an annual publication of university rankings by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS). Previously known as Times Higher Education–QS World University Rankings, the publisher had collaborated with Times Higher Education magazine (THE) to publish its international league tables from 2004 to 2009 before both started to announce their own versions. QS then chose to continue using the pre-existing methodology while Times Higher Education adopted a new methodology to create their rankings.

The Nobel Prize is a set of annual international awards bestowed in several categories by Swedish and Norwegian institutions in recognition of academic, cultural, or scientific advances.

The Crafoord Prize is an annual science prize established in 1980 by Holger Crafoord, a Swedish industrialist, and his wife Anna-Greta Crafoord. The Prize is awarded in partnership between the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the Crafoord Foundation in Lund. The Academy is responsible for selecting the Crafoord Laureates. The prize is awarded in four categories: astronomy and mathematics; geosciences; biosciences, with particular emphasis on ecology; and polyarthritis, the disease from which Holger severely suffered in his last years.

The High Court of Australia is the supreme court in the Australian court hierarchy and the final court of appeal in Australia. It has both original and appellate jurisdiction, the power of judicial review over laws passed by the Parliament of Australia and the parliaments of the states, and the ability to interpret the Constitution of Australia and thereby shape the development of federalism in Australia.

The Group of Eight (Go8) is a coalition of world-leading research intensive Australian universities. The Go8 universities are some of the largest and the oldest universities in Australia and are consistently the highest ranked of all Australian universities. In 2016 all Go8 Universities were ranked in the top 150 worldwide, with six in the top 100. Go8 Universities feature in the top 100 places for every subject area in the QS world university subject rankings. All Go8 Universities are in the QS top 100 for literature, biological sciences, environmental sciences, accounting and finance, anthropology, law and education.

CEMS - The Global Alliance in Management Education or CEMS is a cooperation of leading business schools and universities with multinational companies and NGOs. The CEMS Global Alliance includes 31 academic institutions from every continent, 71 corporate partners and 7 social partners (NGOs) from around the globe. CEMS administers delivery of the CEMS MIM degree in its member schools, supports the CEMS Alumni Association (CAA) and facilitates general cooperation among its members.

The Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU) is a consortium of 50 leading research universities in 17 economies of the Pacific Rim. Formed in 1997, APRU fosters collaboration between member universities, researchers, and policymakers contributing to economic, scientific and cultural advancement in the Pacific Rim. It is located in the IAS building at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in Hong Kong.

The New South Wales Legislative Council, often referred to as the upper house, is one of the two chambers of the parliament of the Australian state of New South Wales. The other is the Legislative Assembly. Both sit at Parliament House in the state capital, Sydney. It is normal for legislation to be first deliberated on and passed by the Legislative Assembly before being considered by the Legislative Council, which acts in the main as a house of review.

William Charles Wentworth was an Australian explorer, journalist, politician and author, and one of the leading figures of early colonial New South Wales. He was the first native-born Australian to achieve a reputation overseas, and a leading advocate for self-government for the Australian colonies.

The University of Cambridge is a collegiate public research university in Cambridge, United Kingdom. Founded in 1209 and granted a Royal Charter by King Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world's fourth-oldest surviving university. The university grew out of an association of scholars who left the University of Oxford after a dispute with the townspeople. The two 'ancient universities' share many common features and are often referred to jointly as 'Oxbridge'. The history and influence of the University of Cambridge has made it one of the most prestigious universities in the world.

The university was established via the passage of the University of Sydney Act,[8] on 24 September 1850 and was assented on 1 October 1850 by Sir Charles Fitzroy.[9] Two years later, the university was inaugurated on 11 October 1852 in the Big Schoolroom of what is now Sydney Grammar School. The first principal was John Woolley,[10] the first professor of chemistry and experimental physics was John Smith.[11] On 27 February 1858 the university received its Royal Charter from Queen Victoria, giving degrees conferred by the university rank and recognition equal to those given by universities in the United Kingdom.[12] By 1859, the university had moved to its current site in the Sydney suburb of Camperdown.

Sydney Grammar School is an independent, fee-paying, non-denominational, day school for boys, located in Darlinghurst, Edgecliff and St Ives, which are all suburbs of Sydney, Australia.

John Woolley was an academic and clergyman, the first principal of the University of Sydney, Australia.

John SmithCMG was a Professor of Chemistry and Experimental Physics at the University of Sydney, and a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council.

Most of the estate of John Henry Challis was bequeathed to the university, which received a sum of £200,000 in 1889. This was thanks in part due to William Montagu Manning (Chancellor 1878–95) who argued against the claims by British Tax Commissioners. The following year seven professorships were created: anatomy; zoology; engineering; history; law; logic and mental philosophy; and modern literature.

A significant figure from 1927 to 1958, termed 'Sydney's best known academic'[13], was the Professor of Philosophy at the University John Anderson. A native of Scotland, Anderson's controversial views as a self-proclaimed Atheist and advocate of free thought in all subjects raised the ire of many, even to the point of being censured by the state parliament in 1943.[14]

1950–2000

During the late 1960s, the University of Sydney was at the centre of rows to introduce courses on Marxism and feminism at the major Australian universities. At one stage, newspaper reporters descended on the university to cover brawls, demonstrations, secret memos and a walk-out by David Armstrong, a respected philosopher who held the Challis Chair of Philosophy from 1959 to 1991, after students at one of his lectures openly demanded a course on feminism.[15] The philosophy department split over the issue to become the Traditional and Modern Philosophy Department, headed by Armstrong and following a more traditional approach to philosophy, and the General Philosophy Department, which follows the French continental approach.

Under the terms of the Higher Education (Amalgamation) Act 1989 (NSW)[16] the following bodies were incorporated into the university in 1990:

The Orange Agricultural College (OAC) was originally transferred to the University of New England under the Act, but then transferred to the University of Sydney in 1994, as part of the reforms to the University of New England undertaken by the University of New England Act 1993[17] and the Southern Cross University Act 1993.[18] In January 2005, the University of Sydney transferred the OAC to Charles Sturt University.

2000–present

The Main Quadrangle in its complete form as seen today

In February 2007, the university agreed to acquire a portion of the land granted to St John's College to develop the Sydney Institute of Health and Medical Research, now the Charles Perkins Centre, the first new research building to be built on campus in over 40 years. As a Roman Catholic institution, in handing over the land St John's placed limitations on the type of medical research which could be conducted on the premises, seeking to preserve the essence of the college's mission. This caused concern among some groups, who argued that it would interfere with scientific medical research. However, this was rejected by the university's administration because the building was not intended for this purpose and there were many other facilities in close proximity where such research could take place.[citation needed].

In 2010 the University received a rarely seen Pablo Picasso painting from the private collection of an anonymous donor. The painting, Jeune Fille Endormie, which had never been publicly seen since 1939, depicts the artist's lover, Marie-Thérèse Walter and was donated on the strict understanding that it would be sold and the proceeds directed to medical research.[19] In June 2011, the painting was auctioned at Christie's in London and sold for £13.5 million ($20.6 million AUD). The proceeds of the sale funded the establishment of many endowed professorial chairs at the yet to be constructed Charles Perkins Centre, where a room dedicated to the painting, now exists.[20]

At the start of 2010, the University controversially adopted a new logo. It retains the same university arms, however it takes on a more modern look. There have been stylistic changes, the main one being the coat of arm's mantling, the shape of the escutcheon (shield), the removal of the motto scroll, and also others more subtle within the arms itself, such as the mane and fur of the lion, the number of lines in the open book and the colouration.[21] The original Coat of Arms from 1857 continues to be used for ceremonial and other formal purposes, such as on testamurs.[22][23]

Concerns about public funding for higher education were reflected again in 2014 following the federal government's proposal to deregulate student fees. The university held a wide-ranging consultation process, which included a "town hall meeting" at the university's Great Hall 25 August 2014, where an audience of students, staff and alumni expressed deep concern about the government's plans and called on university leadership to lobby against the proposals.[24] Spence took a leading position among Australian vice-chancellors in repeatedly calling throughout 2014 for any change to funding to not undermine equitable access to university while arguing for fee deregulation to raise course costs for the majority of higher education students.[25][26]

In order to further enhance its competitiveness locally and internationally, the university has introduced plans to consolidate existing degrees to reduce the overall number of programs.[27]

Controversies

In 2001, the University of Sydney chancellor, Dame Leonie Kramer, was forced to resign by the university's governing body.[28] In 2003, Nick Greiner, a former Premier of New South Wales, resigned from his position as chair of the university's Graduate School of Management because of academic protests against his simultaneous chairmanship of British American Tobacco (Australia). Subsequently, his wife, Kathryn Greiner, resigned in protest from the two positions she held at the university as chair of the Sydney Peace Foundation and a member of the executive council of the Research Institute for Asia and the Pacific.[29]

In 2005, the Public Service Association of New South Wales and the Community and Public Sector Union were in dispute with the university over a proposal to privatise security at the main campus (and the Cumberland campus).[30]

Action initiated by Spence to improve the financial sustainability of the university has alienated some students and staff.[31] In 2012, Spence led efforts to cut the university's expenditure to address the financial impact of a slowdown in international student enrolments across Australia. This included redundancies of a number of university staff and faculty, though some at the university argued that the institution should cut back on building programs instead.[32] Critics argue the push for savings has been driven by managerial incompetence and indifference,[31] fuelling industrial action during a round of enterprise bargaining in 2013 that also reflected widespread concerns about public funding for higher education.[33]

An internal staff survey in 2012/13, which found widespread dissatisfaction with how the university is being managed.[34] Asked to rate their level of agreement with a series of statements about the university, 19 per cent of those surveyed believed "change and innovation" were handled well by the university. In the survey, 75 per cent of university staff indicated senior executives were not listening to them, while only 22 per cent said change was handled well and 33 per cent said senior executives were good role models.[35]

In the first week of semester, some staff passed a motion of no confidence in Spence because of concerns he was pushing staff to improve the budget while he received a performance bonus of $155,000 that took his total pay to $1million, in the top 0.1 per cent of income earners in Australia.[36] Fairfax media reports Spence and other Uni bosses have salary packages worth ten times more than staff salaries and double that of the Prime Minister.[37]

During Spence's term, the university community was divided over allowing students from an elite private school, Scots College, to enter university via a "pathway of privilege" by means of enrolling in a Diploma of Tertiary Preparation rather than meeting HSC entry requirements.[38] The university charged students $12,000 to take the course and have since successfully admitted a number of students to degree courses. An exposé by Fairfax media which turned out to be based on a misunderstanding as to VET and UAC matriculation standards, the scheme has been criticised by Phillip Heath, the national chairman of the Association of Heads of independent schools of Australia.[39] Heath later withdrew the statement, indicating that he had been taken out of context, confirming in a letter circulated to Scots parents that "the Diploma of Tertiary Preparation at Scots is clearly not a "sweetheart deal" as has been reported".

An investigation by Fairfax Media in 2015 revealed widespread cheating at universities across NSW, including the University of Sydney.[40] The university established a taskforce on academic misconduct in April 2015 to maintain its leadership position in preventing incidences of cheating and academic misconduct.[41]

A 2016 investigation by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation exposed corporate deals between the Veterinary Faculty and large pet food companies had resulted in the withholding of harmful cat food product tested to protect corporate sponsors.[42]

Originally housed in what is now Sydney Grammar School, in 1855 the government granted land in Grose Farm to the university, three kilometres from the city, which is now the main Camperdown campus. The architect Edmund Blacket designed the original Neo-GothicsandstoneQuadrangle and Great Tower buildings, which were completed in 1862. The rapid expansion of the university in the mid-20th century resulted in the acquisition of land in Darlington across City Road. The Camperdown/Darlington campus houses the university's administrative headquarters, and the Faculties of Arts, Science, Education and Social Work, Pharmacy, Veterinary Science, Economics and Business, Architecture, and Engineering. It is also the home base of the large Sydney Medical School, which has numerous affiliated teaching hospitals across the state.

The main campus is also the focus of the university's student life, with the student-run University of Sydney Union (known as "the Union") in possession of three buildings – Wentworth, Manning and Holme Buildings. These buildings house a large proportion of the university's catering outlets, and provide space for recreational rooms, bars and function centres. One of the largest activities organised by the Union is the Orientation Week (or 'O-week'), centring on stalls set up by clubs and societies on the Front Lawns.

As of 2016 the university is undertaking a large capital works program with the aim of revitalising the campus and providing more office, teaching and student space.[43] The program will see the amalgamation of the smaller science and technical libraries into a larger library, and the construction of a central administration and student services building along City Road. A new building for the School of Information Technologies opened in late 2006 and has been located on a site adjacent to the Seymour Centre. The busy Eastern Avenue thoroughfare has been transformed into a pedestrian plaza and a new footbridge has been built over City Road. The new home for the Sydney Law School, located alongside Fisher Library on the site of the old Edgeworth David and Stephen Roberts buildings, has been completed. The university has opened a new building called "Abercrombie building" for business school students in early 2016.

Satellite campuses

Cumberland campus: Formerly an independent institution (the Cumberland College of Health Sciences), the Cumberland campus in the Sydney suburb of Lidcombe was incorporated into the university as part of the higher education reforms of the late 1980s. It is home to the Faculty of Health Sciences, which covers various allied health disciplines, including physiotherapy, speech pathology, radiation therapy, occupational therapy, as well as exercise science and health information management.

The Sydney Dental Hospital located in Surry Hills and the Westmead Centre for Oral Health which is attached to Westmead Hospital.

Camden campus: Locatedin one of the most rapidly growing peri-urban areas in the country, Sydney's southwest. The Camden campus houses lecture theatres, research institutes, veterinary clinics and research farms for bioscience, environmental science, agriculture and veterinary science.

The university also uses a number of other facilities for its teaching activities.

Sydney Medical School has eight clinical schools at its affiliated hospitals, responsible for clinical education at the hospitals.

One Tree Island is an island situated within the World Heritage Site Great Barrier Reef Marine Park about 20km east-southeast of Heron Island and about 90km east-northeast of Gladstone on the Queensland coast, and hosts a tropical marine research station of the School of Geosciences.

The IA Watson Grains Research Centre located at Narrabri in north-central New South Wales is a research station of the Faculty of Agriculture and Environment.

Arthursleigh is an agricultural estate located near Goulburn. An art studio is located in Paris, France, while the Australian Archaeology Centre is located in Athens, Greece.

Taylors College at Waterloo in Sydney is operated by the University for its Foundation Program, catering to international students wishing to enter the University.

Library

The University of Sydney Library consists of 11 individual libraries located across the university's various campuses. The Fisher and Health sciences libraries offer disability support services. [45]According to the library's publications, it is the largest academic library in the southern hemisphere;[46] university statistics show that in 2007 the collection consisted of just under 5 million physical volumes and a further 300,000 e-books, for a total of approximately 5.3million items.[47] The Rare Books Library possesses several extremely rare items, including one of the two extant copies of the Gospel of Barnabas and a first edition of Isaac Newton's Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica.

Museums and galleries

The Nicholson Museum of Antiquities contains the largest and most prestigious collection of antiquities in Australia. The museum was founded in 1860 by the donation of Sir Charles Nicholson (Sydney University's second chancellor 1854-1862). It is also the country's oldest university museum, and features ancient artefacts from Egypt, the Middle East, Greece, Rome, Cyprus and Mesopotamia, collected by the university over many years and added to by recent archaeological expeditions. The museum is located in the historic Main Quadrangle at the University of Sydney and open freely to general public.

Nicholson Museum - Joy of Museum

The Macleay Museum is named after Alexander Macleay, whose collection of insects begun in the late eighteenth century was the basis upon which the museum was founded. It has developed into an extraordinary collection of natural history specimens, ethnographic artefacts, scientific instruments and historic photographs.

The University Art Collection was founded in the 1860s and contains more than 7,000 pieces, constantly growing through donation, bequests, and acquisition. It is housed in several different places, including the Sir Hermann Black Gallery and the War Memorial Art Gallery.

The University Art Gallery opened in 1959. The Gallery hosted numerous exhibitions until 1972, when it was taken over for office space. It reopened in 1995 and continues to present a regularly changing program.[50]

Halls of Residence & Residential Colleges

The university has a number of halls of residence (based on research-lead living-learning principles) and residential colleges, each with its own distinctive style and facilities. All offer a wide range of cultural, social, sporting and leadership activities along with targeted academic support in a supportive communal environment. The Halls of Residence are owned and operated by the University Accommodation Service.[51] Starting in 2013, the University committed to creating the Halls of Residence (an additional 4,000-6,000 residential places) at an affordable price to enhance the educational experience of living on campus and to offer more students a rich academic environment in which to live.[52]

The University Student Accommodation Service were awarded the Asia-Pacific Student Housing Operation of the Year & Excellence in Facility Development and Management[54] in 2016.

The Student Accommodation Service and the Mana Yura Student Support Service were the first in Australia to implement an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander On-Campus Residence Halls Scholarship Guarantee.[52]

Affiliated with the University are six religiously denominated colleges. Unlike some residential colleges in British or American universities, the colleges are not affiliated with any specific discipline of study.

The college also publishes a peer-reviewed online journal, Philament,[55] that focuses on work by postgraduate students including creative stories.[56] the journal is supported by an advisory board of faculty members, and is registered by the Australian Commonwealth Department of Education Science and Training (DEST).

The Anderson Stuart Building, housing the Sydney Medical SchoolThe Macleay Building housing the Macleay Museum, the oldest collection of natural history in AustraliaThe Madsen Building, housing the School of Geosciences, previously occupied by the CSIRO

The 2019 QS World University Rankings ranked the University of Sydney 42nd in the world, third nationally and top-ranked university in New South Wales. It is ranked 25th in the world by academic reputation.[69] By Subject, QS ranked the University of Sydney in the top 50 across all five broad subject areas.[70]

15th in Arts and Humanities

39th in Engineering and Technology

15th in Life Sciences and Medicine

43rd in Natural Sciences

14th in Social Sciences and Management

Additionally, Sydney is ranked 2nd in Sports-related Subjects, 10th in Anatomy & Physiology, 11th in Veterinary Science, 12th in Education, 14th in Law and Legal Studies, 15th in Nursing, 16th in Architecture, 18th in Accounting and Finance, 18th in English Language and Literature, 18th in Medicine and 18th in Pharmacy and Pharmacology.

The 2018 QS Graduate Employability Rankings ranked University of Sydney graduates 4th most employable in the world, 1st in Australia, and 2nd in the Asia Pacific region.[71] In 2012, a human resources consultancy in Paris conducted a survey of recruiters in 20 countries and ranked Sydney as 49th in the world for employability.[72]

In the 2018 Shanghai Ranking published by the Shanghai Ranking Consultancy, the University of Sydney was ranked in the 68th and in the top 0.6% of universities in the world.[76] Sydney is ranked 1st in Australia and 29th overall in the 2017 CWTS Leiden Rankings for research impact.[77] Additionally,

In terms of alumni wealth, the number of wealthy Sydney alumni was ranked fifth outside the United States, behind Oxford, Mumbai, Cambridge and LSE according to the ABC NEWS.[79] Business magazine Spear's placed the University of Sydney 44th in the world and 2nd in Australia in its table of "World's top 100 universities for producing millionaires".[80]

Endowments and research grants

The university has received a number of significant bequests and legacies over its history. The following are current professorships ("chairs"), funds and fellowships which are funded by bequests and legacies and named after benefactors:

Coat of arms

Arms used in the University of Sydney logo, pre-2010

The Grant of Arms was made by the College of Arms in 1857. The grant reads:

Argent on a Cross Azure an open book proper, clasps Gold, between four Stars of eight points Or, on a chief Gules a Lion passant Guardant also Or, together with this motto "Sidere mens eadem mutato" to be borne and used forever herafter by the said University of Sydney on their Common Seal, Shields or otherwise according to the Law of Arms.

The use of eight-pointed stars was unusual for arms at the time, although they had been used unofficially as emblems for New South Wales since the 1820s and on the arms of the Church of England Diocese of Australia in 1836.[87]

According to the university, the Latin motto Sidere mens eadem mutato can be translated to "the stars change, the mind remains the same."[88] Francis Merewether, later Vice Provost, in 1857 proposed "Coelum non animum mutant" from Horace (Ep.1.11.27) but after objections changed it to a metrical version including "Sidus" (Star), a neat reference to the Southern Cross and perhaps the Sydney family link with Sir Philip Sidney's "Astrophel (Star-Lover) & Stella (Star)".[89] Author and university alumnus Clive James quipped in his 1981 autobiography that the motto loosely implies "Sydney University is really Oxford or Cambridge laterally displaced approximately 12,000 miles."[90]

University of Sydney Union: The University of Sydney Union (USU) is the oldest and largest university union in Australia. USU provides a range of activities, programs, services and facilities geared at giving students the university experience. This involves delivering a huge Clubs and Societies program, a varied entertainment program, student opportunities, a range of catering and retail services plus buildings and recreational spaces for students, staff and visitors.

The SRC and Union are both governed by student representatives, who are elected by students each year. Elections for the USU board of directors occur in first semester; elections for the SRC President, and for members of the Students' Representative Council itself, occur in second semester, along with a separate election for the editorial board of the student newspaper Honi Soit, which is published by the SRC. The elections are usually closely contested, and result in much of the main campus being covered with chalk messages from the various candidates.

Student well-being

Reports of on-campus sexual assault and harassment

A quarter of the university's female students residing in university colleges have been found to face sexual harassment.[92] Between 2011 and 2016 there were 52 officially reported cases of sexual abuse and harassment on campus released by the university, resulting in 1 expulsion, 1 suspension and 4 reprimands.[93] This is less than the 2017 Australian Human Rights Commission report on sexual assault and harassment which found reported figures substantially higher than this.[94] 71% of students surveyed in 2017 reported not knowing how to make a report relating to sexual assault or harassment. Imogen Grant from the SRC said students who had experienced sexual assault had come forward believing that "navigating the university bureaucracy exacerbates trauma and often seems futile".[95] Previously a 2015 survey of 2000 USyd students found that 57 per cent of respondents did not know where to seek help or how to report sexual misconduct at USyd, and only 1.4% of all serious sexual incidents are reported.[96] After the release of the 2017 report the vice-chancellor said the university was committed to implementing "all of the recommendations contained in the report".[95] Graphic videos emerged in 2018 of male students bragging of their sexual feats over the female students, particularly first-years.[97]

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